116 2181 Jaydawg JCacho^1295 Re: Who Will Win The A.L. East? [Reply to #2181] 2/20/06, 7:30pm I fail to see how people are already handing the Blue Jays the Wild Card. They have yet to play one game. AJ Burnett is as much a risk as Josh Beckett, if not more. Glaus hits for power, something the Jays need, but his average is anything but good. They don't have a Shortstop. The only good [guaranteed] acquisition they made was BJ Ryan. The Sox on the other hand, replaced surplus offense for some much needed defense and pitching. While it seems we created holes in the lineup with Lowell and Gonzalez, we just replaced the old holes, Millar and Bellhorn, while at the same time upgrading our defense immensely. We acquired Mark Loretta, a .300 hitter, in the cheapest deal of the offseason. Trying out Youk at first, same way Jays are trying out Hill and 2nd. Replaced Damon with Crisp, two players of similiar statistics, while saving a ton of cash. Our pitching was so bad last year, it can only get better. Schilling is looking to come back from his injury [he had a couple of bright spots last year, 1Run games], we traded for Beckett [Yankee Killer], and brought up Jon Papelbon. As for relief corps, we traded for David Riske, signed Julian Tavarez, signed Rudy Seanez, re-signed Timlin, and Foulke appears to be in the best shape of his life. In 100 simulations of Diamond Mind Baseball, according to ZiPs projections, The Sox got an average of 92 wins per season, the Yankees 87 and Jays 83. [JCacho from Guaynabo/OTHER] Replies: 2186 2192